While Snapchat’s stock has slumped since its euphoric debut on the New York Stock Exchange in March, chief executive Evan Spiegel says he doesn’t regret taking his six-year-old messaging company public. “Going public was really the right thing for the company and the right thing at the time,” Spiegel said in conversation Tuesday with Walter Isaacson, president and C.E.O. of the Aspen Institute, at Vanity Fair’s fourth-annual New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles. “We saw a tremendous benefit in transitioning from short-term investors to long-term investors. One of the things I did underestimate was how much more important communication becomes” to investors.

Spiegel seemed to acknowledge that he could have done a better job explaining to investors how his company works. “What’s really interesting is when you go public, you really need to explain to a huge new investor base how your business works. At the same time, there’s also all these new regulations about what you can and can’t say and how you can communicate. I think one thing we’ve been going through this year is how to communicate the Snap story,” he said, suggesting, perhaps, that he had fallen short. Still, he said Silicon Valley companies had become overly hesitant when it comes to going public, tracing the industry’s cautionary approach to the 2008 financial crisis. He repeatedly described Snapchat as building the foundation for long-term growth, and argued that going public gave his company the capital and liquidity it needed to move forward.

Video: Evan Spiegel Talks Taking Snap Public

The interview was a rare public appearance for 27-year-old Spiegel, who doesn’t do much press. But it was also an opportunity for him to announce his latest initiative: a partnership with contemporary artists including Jeff Koons that will allow users to view virtual art installations in the real world using the augmented-reality features in Snapchat—something he described as a major advancement in how users think about using their phones to interact with the physical world. “Cameras inspire curiosity . . . they encourage you to look around,” Spiegel said. “That’s different than staring at a sheet of paper. If you look at the Snapchat camera, layering this expression on top of your experience encourages anyone anywhere to be creative.” The partnership is the newest in a series of efforts taken by Snapchat to integrate augmented-reality features into its products. In the past, Snapchat has added a lens feature, allowing users to overlay special effects onto their selfies, and virtual-camera effects called “world lenses,” which shows users what others see through their camera lenses.

Snapchat teased the launch of the partnership with a countdown clock and a large image of New York City’s Central Park on the Web site art.snapchat.com on Monday afternoon, with the timing of the countdown clock corresponding with Spiegel’s appearance at the New Establishment Summit. Snapchat had previously teased the launch of another augmented-reality project, its Spectacles, with a similar countdown clock nearly a year ago as part of its rebranding as Snap Inc., a “camera company.”

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